Artists have a vision of what they are trying to express in virtually every piece of art they create. One of the driving forces of the artistic endeavor in the first place is the desire to express a vision or idea.

Often, however, artists never know what others really see in their work. Theatre Arts West is taking things to a different level with “Project 36,” which will be presented Wednesday at The Merc at The Old Town Temecula Community Theater.

The event will feature a gallery showing at 6:30 p.m. and then a production of monologues at 7 p.m., followed by a talk-back with audience, artists, writers and actors.

“We selected 12 writers whose work we liked, and then we found a number of artists in the area and each writer looked at the art and chose one,” said Gailee Walker Wells, the producer of the show. “No writer could select the same artist. They had to choose one that inspired them.”

Readers Theater in The Merc: “Project 36”

Some of the art was submitted, while other artists were found by staff members.

“We had about 25 or 30 artists for the writers to look at,” she said.

The idea was for the writer then to create a monologue.

“Some of the writers have never written theater before,” Walker Wells said. “The idea was not to re-create the art piece in story form, but to create a new story, a new piece of theater. Some did use the art quite a bit, but other writers really branched out from what the art is.”

They wrote monologues, held auditions, and selected people for the cast. One of the key requirements is that the writer not be in contact with the artists.

“They don’t even know each other and are not able to share anything,” she said. “The writer has seen the piece, but has not talked to the artist. The first time the artist will see what the writer came up with was when they see the show.”

The objective was purely to push creative expression.

“Part of it is that each of those artists was inspired by this mysterious creative source to create whatever they decided to create,” Walker Wells said. “The writer is inspired by the visual piece. Once that is turned over to an actor and director, it has a new creative energy to it. The writer may not like how it was performed. The artist may or may not like what the writer saw or was inspired by. But that’s how art works. People are inspired in different ways.

“It’s all art and all artistic when a playwright writes something and turns it over. You see what happens when others interpret your art.”

It’s all part of the goal to provide more opportunities for creative expression in the area. That’s one reason why the group is pleased that so many of the “Project 36” participants are local.

“We’ve had close to sold-out houses so far,” Walker Wells said. “We want full houses and to get the wineries involved so we can do real productions and grow the equity here.”